If you didn’t see it, I posted a bulletin at MySpace with my Top 5 Male Swims of the games.

Phelps won 2 more Golds yesterday as his quest continues. While watching the 200 meter fly, I didn’t think Phelps looked that great (even tho he lowered his World record) and wondered if he was starting to feel the effects of taking on so many events. But then after the race finished, he revealed that his goggles filled up with water when he dove in, which is just absurd, because usually that’s a recipe for disaster. Yet he still won. Unbelievable. Ian Crocker is going to have to have the swim of his life to beat him in the 100 fly.

Katie Hoff isn’t swimming that fast, so I highly doubt she’ll challenge Janet Evans’ 19-year old record. Maybe Adlington will do it, but not Hoff.

Before the shocking finish of the 4×100 free relay, I put $100 on Phelps to win 8 Golds at 3-to-1 odds. I’m not trying to promote gambling, but If you can get still odds like that, I highly suggest taking them.

Those first 2 events for Phelps were generally considered his toughest, and I can almost guarantee you that he’ll be 6/6 in Golds heading into the 100 fly. In that event, teammate Ian Crocker owns the World record, but Phelps has beaten Crocker plenty of times and Ian has cracked under pressure before. His last event will be the 4×100 medley relay (where he’ll swim fly), and the United States should be able to win that. The only thing I’m worried about now is Brendan Hansen having a complete meltdown, but naww, he’s can’t go out like that.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/10/phelps.ap/index.html

Michael Phelps was back resting at the athletes’ village when his U.S. teammates created some waves at the Water Cube, setting a world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay preliminaries Sunday night.

Their performance gave Phelps a solid chance at claiming a second Olympic gold medal when he joins the team for Monday morning’s final.

Nathan Adrian, Cullen Jones, Wildman-Tobriner and Matt Grevers won their relay heat in 3 minutes, 12.23 seconds, erasing the old mark of 3:12.46 set by the U.S. at the 2006 Pan Pacific championships in Victoria, British Columbia.

Jones was part of the team that owned the previous record, becoming the first black swimmer to set a long-course world mark.

“A lot of people said this was the weaker of the two (freestyle) relays. The four of us set out to do something that not a lot of people thought we could do,” he said. “We weren’t afraid to feel the pain, which is why I’m so dizzy right now.”

Besides qualifying first, Jones had the fastest 100 split of 47.61 seconds among his teammates and will join Phelps, Jason Lezak and Garrett Weber-Gale in the final.

The U.S. has not won the event at the Olympics since 1996, taking silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004. The Americans will be challenged by France, which qualified second in 3:12.36 and will be trying to win its first relay medal in 56 years.

Prediction #1: WRONG!

Phelps shattered his own record once again by going 4:03.84. Lochte was tied w/ him going into the breaststroke leg, which is where he needed to be. But unlike at the U.S. trials, Phelps actually moved ahead of him in breaststroke and then took off on freestyle. Lochte’s time of 4:08.09 was a full 2 seconds slower than his U.S. trials time, which is a very bad sign for the rest of his events. Meanwhile, Phelps looked like he might be untouchable. If the odds are right, I’m going to put money on him to win 8 golds. Don’t forget about the 4×100 free relay tho, as the U.S. is far from being a lock in that event.

Other thoughts:

-The South Korean, Park Tae-Hwan, was brilliant in winning the 400 free. Did you see the footage of him 4 years ago when he false started and didn’t even get a chance to race? Now he’s got a gold medal. I thought he was most impressive because he looks to be 5-foot-11 or so, which is incredibly short for an Olympic freestyle medal winner.

-Stephanie Rice is an Aussie hottie who you’re going to be hearing more of. She now owns the World record in both the 200 IM and 400 IM a la Phelps.

-Hansen did not look sharp at all in the prelims. Kitajima will have no problem beating him, but he has others to worry about. Namely, the Norwegian Alexander Dale Oen, who was just .01 off of Hansen’s world record.

-In the women’s 4×100 free relay, both Torres & Libby Trickett went very fast. Expect fireworks when they clash in the 50 free.